We challenged local chefs to create 6-ingredient tomato recipes. Here's what they came up with.

Melanie Manuel of Celesta restaurant shows her caprese salad, served with ricotta "cheese" made with almonds.(Photo: Submitted photo)

“Only two things that money can’t buy,

that’s true love and home-grown tomatoes.”

— John Denver, Home Grown Tomatoes

No one wants to contradict the late, great singer John Denver, but money CAN buy home-grown tomatoes, at least right now, at virtually every local farmers market. Beautiful, fresh tomatoes are in season, and Milwaukee chefs are putting them to good use.

Melanie Manuel, chef-owner of the east side plant-based restaurant Celesta, and Greg Leon, chef-owner of Spanish restaurant Amalinda, took our six-ingredient tomato challenge. Each came up with a recipe that makes the most of the local tomato bounty, using a maximum of six ingredients (salt, pepper, water and garnishes don’t count).

Both home cooks and professional chefs look forward to summer, when the fruit that acts like a vegetable is readily available in its freshest, most delicious form. Tomato season is particularly exciting for Manuel.

“Obviously, I’m coming at my ingredients from a plant-based perspective,” she said. “I often consider how to highlight that vegetable. I like to incorporate both comfort food and international flavors, so I might be more apt to do a fried green tomato dish than a summer salad dish.”

As for international flair, “We have incorporated tomatoes into Gudeg, an Indonesian cream curry dish with jackfruit,” Manuel says, “and we also make our own house red sauce, as well as chickpea shakshuka.”

Sourced from a backyard

Calley and Michael Hostad check on some of the tomato plants they grow in their backyard in Fox Point.(Photo: Joan Kazan)

Celesta gets the bulk of its tomatoes from Manuel’s friend, Michael Hostad, a Fox Point resident who accidentally developed a passion for tomato-growing.

“Four years ago, we landscaped the yard,” he said. “The landscaper put in raised beds, and I threw a couple of tomato plants in there.”

Finding time to cultivate tomatoes might be challenging for Hostad, who serves as the executive director/founder of The Commons at the Greater Milwaukee Committee and is the co-founder of the Light the Hoan initiative.

“It’s how I maintain my sanity,” he explains. How did his hobby turn into a side hustle?

“It started with me just giving a friend (Manuel) who owns a restaurant (Celesta) tomatoes and she said, ‘I need to be paying you for these.’”

Celesta is the only restaurant Hostad currently sells to, but he says he’s open to taking on others, after making a few adjustments.

“It’s not something I’ve gone out and asked chefs about, but if a chef wanted me to (supply tomatoes) I’d want to make sure I can provide the quantities that are needed. I don’t have all the equipment, I’m more prone to weather and conditions, it could be a great season, it could be a bad season. It works right now because Melanie’s operation is relatively small.”

“Pruning is a big part of what Michael does,” says his wife, Calley. “He wants to ensure that the tomatoes are concentrating on producing and ripening fruit instead of growing more branches or leaves.

“He also uses varying amendments to the soil (adding compost tea or nitrogen); we got our soil tested by the UW-Extension to really understand its nutrients.”

They use tomato towers that are roughly six feet tall to encourage the tomatoes to grow up instead of out, she adds. “We just noticed that some of the plants have outgrown their towers, so we also are tying them to tall bamboo skewers.”

She helps out a bit in the garden, but her talents really shine when it’s time to use the tomato bounty.

“Michael goes out there and spends hours pruning and putzing … my job comes in after everything is picked,” she says, adding: “I learned how to can.

Calley Hostad shows some of the tomatoes she canned last summer.(Photo: Joan Kazan)

“We often use our canned tomatoes to make soup, pasta sauce or chili. Pasta sauce is really versatile, and you can have fun making it up as you go along by tossing in whatever you have on hand, such as onion, basil, garlic, oregano.”

One of the Hostads’ favorite things to do with fresh tomatoes is to throw together a caprese salad consisting of tomatoes, usually a cherry or grape variety, cut in half, fresh basil, fresh mozzarella, olive oil, salt and pepper.

“Michael and I have a rule that the first time we use a new recipe, we follow it exactly,” Calley says. “Any subsequent time, however, all bets are off and we can add or subtract ingredients at will.”

From Spain to Italy

“Summer is the season when our menu blossoms because we’re able to get so much great stuff, including tomatoes,” he says. “The tomato is one of the pillars of Spanish cooking, so we look forward to this time of year.”

Leon gets his tomatoes from two local sources, Fine Fettle Farm in Caledonia and sometimes Produce with Purpose in Fond du Lac.

“Right now we’ve been able to get our hands on different colored cherry tomatoes, and we’re roasting and using them with fish,” Leon says. “We’re also getting heirloom tomatoes, and we do an heirloom tomato salad using the herb hyssop.”

The tomato is also a pillar in Italian cooking. On a recent trip to Rome, my family participated in a local cooking class, a highlight of the trip. There we learned the secret to great pasta sauce from Fiorella De Nuccio, who hosted us in her apartment and shared her family’s cooking secrets.

Using four ingredients, De Nuccio taught us to prep a five-ingredient sauce.

“Keep it simple and keep it fresh,” she says. “I go to my tomato guy at the market and he gives me his best tomatoes.”

I couldn’t bring home the charm and ambience of her small kitchen, but with tomatoes from the West Allis farmers market, I used De Nuccio’s recipe to re-create a taste of Italy.

Boxes of cherry tomatoes wait for buyers at the West Allis Farmers Market.(Photo: Joan Kazan)

*****

Tips for great homegrown tomatoes

Michael Hostad shared a few secrets from his tomato garden.

Used coffee grounds are a great soil amendment for nitrogen. It promotes leafy green growth and is helpful throughout the growing season. Crushed egg shells are also great to add calcium and prevent blossom end rot, rotting that occurs at the bottom of the tomato.

Fish emulsion and compost tea are great organic fertilizer boosts for the plants throughout the season, along with worm castings (worm poop!). All can be purchased at local garden centers; follow the directions for use.

The Hostads grow 21 varieties of tomatoes and sell some of them to Melanie Manuel for the restaurant Celesta. Pruning the tomato plants is an important key to success.(Photo: Joan Kazan)

Always water in the morning, if you can, and always water at the base of the plant. Tomatoes don't like wet leaves.

Using mulch around your plants will help retain moisture on hot days and prevent soil-based diseases from splashing onto the bottom leaves of the plant during watering or heavy rain.

At the end of the growing season, reduce watering to help ripen the final tomatoes. The plant will get stressed, think it's dying, and put all of its energy into ripening those final tomatoes in a last hope to reproduce.

Test the almond “ricotta” by rubbing a bit between your fingers to be sure there is no grit. The mixture should be light and fluffy. Blend longer if necessary and add more water a teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency. For thicker ricotta, store in the fridge at least two hours.

Slice tomatoes thinly ((¼-inch-thick) and arrange on a platter. Sprinkle basil chiffonade over the top, or overlap the slices and place basil leaves between the slices.

Dollop almond ricotta over each slice. If desired, top with more sea salt, cracked black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.

In a deep roasting pan, toss the 4 pounds of tomatoes, the shallots and garlic with Spanish olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast in preheated oven about an hour or until vegetables soften and have released juices. Remove pan from oven, uncover and let cool completely.

If using bread cubes, soak in cold water until soft.

In a blender, combine the roasted tomatoes, garlic and shallots. Add soaked bread, if using, the sherry vinegar and raw tomatoes. Working in batches, blend until completely smooth.

Once all ingredients have blended, season with salt and pepper. Garnish with additional Spanish olive oil and, if desired, grated hard-cooked egg.

Heat a lightly oiled cast-iron skillet until it starts to lightly smoke. Place the tomatoes cut side down and cook about 6 to 8 minutes over high heat or until tomatoes are charred and skin blisters. Flip tomatoes over and cook about another 6 minutes.

Transfer tomatoes to a blender, then add sherry vinegar and cumin seed. Blend until tomatoes are completely liquefied and smooth.

With blender motor running, add oil in a thin stream and continue to blend until oil is completely incorporated. Season with salt and pepper.

Fresh Roma tomatoes are the centerpiece of this deliciously simple sauce. Serve on vegetable noodles (like zucchini zoodles) or your favorite pasta. The recipe is from Fiorella De Nuccio, who shared it during a recent cooking class in Rome.

Coat a cold pan with olive oil, add garlic and onion and cook over medium heat. When garlic and onion start to bubble, stir in tomatoes. Allow tomatoes to cook 20 to 30 minutes, until tomatoes and onion soften and water begins to reduce. Add salt and pepper and blend, using an immersion blender, or transfer to a blender or food processor.

Note: For a creamy sauce without cream, cook your favorite pasta in boiling, salted water. Just before pasta is finished, transfer it to the sauce to finish cooking.

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